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Sitemap --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- More interesting items/ideas for Bioshock Rapture MMORPG --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Part 21 --- --- --- --- Questions we never have answered : '-' 'Spider' Splicers - where are their webs ?? (hmm ... nets... nice low-tech ....) '-' Drill Oil - Why do so many Splicers have 'Drill Fuel' on them ??? Money and ammo and pep-bars, I can understand. Is it fish liver oil based, and the food in Rapture lacks fiber ?? '-' Harvest or Save - why not a third option of just releasing them as a Little Sister back into their vent ?? '-' How exactly did the Little Sisters get those little red wagons (they delivered tonics/plasmid to you in for Eleanor) thru the Vents ??? '-' No Urinals in the 'Gents' ?? Too controversial ?? (game industry just not ready for that ?? Tearing parasitic seaslugs out of the stomachs of little girls was fine, but we have to draw the line somewhere....) '-' BS2 a Lil Sister left standing next to a dead Big Daddy (you killed). Why do all other unaccompanied Big Daddies walk by and ignore her (and she them), and Splicers likewise ignore what would be an easy target??? It might have been more interesting to have them act correctly ("Oh look a Little Sister to take care of, next to an inept clown who FAILED"), thus the Player has to be more careful and not just kill Daddies at their convenience and leave a Little Sister alone. '-' If 'The Thinker' was so smart, then why couldn't it tell Ryan where Fontaine's Smuggling Hideout was ??? '-' Wouldnt it have been a REAL 'Moral Choice' if you got NO ADAM for 'Saving' Little Sisters ???? Or was it THAT obvious which choice most 'Gamers' would choose, if it worked that way???? Result - no real 'cost' for the so-called 'good' choice. '-' Sorry, all we have is fried/boiled barnacles, but we do have Grey Poupon mustard to put on it?? '-' How do the Little Sisters crawl all that way back to Fontaine Futuristics or Persephone to deliver their load of ADAM? (Especially when they seem to be so tired??) Do they have little tricycles stashed in there? Air flows under considerable force thru those air vents (in both directions), so maybe the Lil Sisters go flying through them like those packages we see hurling through the Pneumo?? Seeing a Little Sister shoot out of a vent might be a less than rare occurance, fortunately they heal almost instantly. '-' Who (in BS2) bothered to neatly replace station and directory signs pointing to locations renamed during 'the Chaos' when the actual places themselves have kludgy/crudely altered signs ? (And what is under the 'Paupers Drop' scrawled on all those AE map boards? "Maintenance Junction 17" wont fit and would be a strange station name anyway). Sinclair redeveloped it, so he probably named it. '-' Wouldn't sliding about on icy floors have been a neat effect ?? An Ice skating ADAM filled cat would have been 'icing on the cake'. Big Daddy with a snowplow attachment .... '-' Fontaine was killed, leaving buildings full of little orphans (The Little Sister's Orphanages), and a whole existing lab farm full of SeaSlug infested Little Sisters churning out the ADAM. What need to kidnap more children (at least up to the time of Ryan's death when they cant fabricate an evil persona for him any further for the plot) ?? Atlas on the run (because of the pheromone control), why any need to accelerate the mass production of ADAM when it is a poison that just makes for more unstable/insane citizens?? Lacks logic. '-' Why was there no 'dancing' Mini-Game in Bioshock and why wasnt this corrected in Bioshock 2 ?? Im sure the MMORPG will address this. '-' After filling himself with that huge amount of ADAM, shouldn't Atlas have simply exploded ? '-'''The Thinker - "the machine processes data at the speed of thought." ??? Maybe the 'type' of thought is more important, what with the Thinker's complex circuitry grown from cultures and bio-structure of SeaSlug brains.... It could have been SkyNet all over again. '-''' What would it have been like to have a Big Daddy Play dead - keel over still with half its hitpoints left and then when you turned your back on it got up and charged into you. Just to happen once would have had you looking warily at every other 'dead' Big Daddy for the rest of the game. (Maybe not an intensional tactic, but a temporary mechanical issue could justify it). '-' Just who did the maintenance on all the Turrets and Security Cameras and keeps restocking/fixing the Flybots we kept running into ? We saw some Splicers playing with them, but none with a toolbox or a repair manual. '-' Why isnt every inch of Rapture that we go thru picked clean of any useful items ?? Many Splicers wander about (and obviously live in many of the areas). Money just lies on the ground/tables/in containers. Vending Machines are full of goodies of all kinds. Splicers carry money so they likely use it (though what they have is usually less than typical prices in the machines). Food and booze and smokes lie about (and the Splicers we kill carry the same items). Its been at least 7 years since the economy imploded and all this manufactured stuff is STILL laying about, unconsumed?? '-' Why wasn't the entire City of Rapture build floating in the Ocean ?? (Then it could keep moving to remain secret - particularly if it could submerge some of the time). Oops, better not mention that to the Splicers or 'it will give them ideas' ... Actually some forum-posted idea had alternate plots about Rapture buildings cut loose from Rapture(foundation) which would float to the surface and wander terrorizing the oceans. (could be some MMORPG quest dealing with a scenario like this - aint imagination great ??) '-' Why do some of the niches containing the Vita-Chambers look like they were purposely built into older structures (like ones dating from 1952 or before -- ie - Paupers Drop), when the Vita-Chamber was a later development (more around the time of the the Kashmir Incident - after Suchong was working for Ryan, maybe after Fontaine was eliminated) ? What else might have been in those niches (they are a bit big for phone booths and in many odd spots). '-' We've seen Plaster Splicers - so why not Pudding Splicers ??? '-' Wouldnt you think that the initial versions of plasmids would have somewhat friendlier names (early consumer product names). Would it really be called "Incinerate" versus 'Lemme give you a light' (or something less frightening)???? *"Electro-Bolt" -- "Electro-starter" or "Electro-magic' *"Telekinesis" -- 'Le Remote hande' ??? (They were originally advertised with consumer uses in mind (instead of mayhem). At least until the Splicer threat made their self-defense uses more popular/demanded...) *"Insect Swarm" -- "Murder of Bees" .. ooops, doesnt make sense in at least 2 ways..... '-' What was Dionysus Park called before Lamb built her little art center and what was it used for previously? It is at a crossing location of 2 Atlantic Express routes (more a 'junction' than Maintenance Junction 17 looked) in the older part of the City, so would have been a logical location for something else of consequence (which apparently didnt last). Perhaps it was the site of the Old Concrete Plant used in construction of the City - no longer really needed, fed by a AE line from the Quarry for materials, proximity to the old Masons (builders) Quarter, its lack of large/tall buildings, and current (newer) buildings that look the proper constructed shape for 'art' galleries. Perhaps the Art idea came from the Concrete company's (as a sideline) making alot of those massive Art Deco statues that decorate the outsides of many buildings (seen at Paupers Drop, Persephone, etc..) '-' What does the world look like from a Big Sisters delusional conditioned view ?? We saw what Lil Sisters think they see, what all different would it be for a Half-Splicer-out-of-Her-Mind teenage girl.... The MMORPG might explore this - would it have to be restricted to some area (again we saw for Lil Sisters only within a limited environment that was mimic'd thru Little-Sister-Vision™. It would be hard to do that generically for the game world. The Big Sisters dont come to New Rapture that often anyway, so it could be a 'mission' that the Player experiences with a more convienent 'canned' setting and choreographed situation. '-' Why no Ninjas ??? Actually Ninja's dont do very well in damp environments. Splashing thru puddles gives them away and leaks everywhere allows slippery slime to grow, making sneaky movements hazardous. Their throwing stars get all rusty... Too many Dark places where the inhabitants are adapted to the dark, loses the Ninja most of its advantages. Somewhere someone suggested a 'Ninja Big Daddy', but this isnt supposed to be a "Upside Down Bizarro Rapture" (though that place might be a good addition at some point - kind of the nightmare dreamscape for denziens of Rapture's nightmare world). '-' Where do the fireflies that the Little Sisters have in their lil red wagons come from ?? Possibly they were part of some ADAM based bioluminescence experiments and now there are some sections of Rapture infested with millions of the things. '-' Dionysus Park is a large complex that Lamb had modified/rebuilt (site apparently was re-built on the foundation of Rapture's old cement plant). Where did she get all the money to (re)build it and then operate it 'for free' ?? Artists rarely make enough money to support themselves, so it must have been various rich 'benefactors' to supplement whatever money Lamb had (we never heard about how much personal wealth she had). Perhaps she took advantage of depressed wages for much of the construction work. She also had to pay for operating her free head-shrink clinic and publishing that book of hers. --- --- Doors that Slam shut : Air Vents especially would have automatic bulkhead seals (probably with redunadant sets) as they are usually left open (Pneumo tubes are closed off by the machinery, but also have closeable seals). If a major flooding situation happened, water would spray in with great force (like 280 psi) and any air in the space would compress and shoot thru those vents at some similar pressure (imagine the Little Sister being in that Vent/conduit/ducts and shooting out the other end at several hundred feet per second). The truly monumental bulkhead doors are the big openings for the streets (including Trolley tracks) entering a Plaza. They are Emergency doors larger than those seen for the train airlocks in the Atlantic Express stations. They have to be able to handle anything that might get stuck in them and close with enough force to cut any obstruction in half. Pusher bars move to clear any objects that might block the doors guideways. Such doors are usually in double pairs to be relatively fail-safe and can handle any single failure. --- --- Columbia Infinite "Cameo" : You are 'tooling around' in your lil Sub prospecting and you come upon a weird sunken 'City' that once looked like it was supposed to float in the sky (now at the bottom of the sea mere miles from one of Raptures outlying communities). And on finding it, the Rapture City authorities dig up the information of it having been built by some madman way back at the turn of the century, who never actually got it to fly (for obvious reasons) and it barely even floated on the Ocean's surface. It had drifted around in the Atlantic for years having declared itself to be a Sovereign state and became home to a crazy bunch of rich people (and their sychophants) who ALL used way too many hallucinogenic drugs. Eventually it sank in a Storm in the North Atlantic near the Denmark Straight taking all its inhabitants to Davy Jones Locker. A place Sander Cohen would probably have loved to be King of ... --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Modular Building of game terrain - 'Easy-Builder' : For the 'ease of use' part of the Asset Creation tools - specificly for buildings - you want nice unitized chunks of walls and floor sections and other details to work with. Looking at Paupers Drop (with its building fronts planted there standing inside of a concrete cavern). Enough is there alone to make half a Batman movie - if the various parts were sliced-n-diced for recombining. Terrain editting tools would help to do this, with process 'wizards' that lead you thru the various phases of assembling a proper/valid/complete building scene : The enclosing building structural area is initially selected (flexible modular blocks of area/space allowing the changing/adjustment of its shape and dimensions). Space Details are fairly simple - usually a series of rectangles/boxes of various sizes connected together. The tools would link/join/weld them appropriately, and later auto-create the required internal structural supports and walls/utility spaces/machinery/access-ways. The initial version of these tools might have you do some of this manually, but plug-ins by a few talented scripters could add many very useful 'auto-magic' features.) External 'Sea' Windows are modular 'structure' units, but are key defining details for any building. The interior area is restricted by their placement and has to fit around the windows thru the outer structural walls. Doors and portal connecting the area to the outside likewise are key features. Laying out the floor plan comes next (within the now defined interior 'area'), Dividing/sub Wall sections are now placed (lots of variations of pieces to select from). Door (with frame)/entrance portals are located. Changes of floor height are specified (allowing multi-story with floors above each other, using stairs, steps, ramps, ladders). Some 'building' wall sections are multi storied with windows and balconies predefined (look at building fronts in Paupers Drop). Freestanding interior walls have both sides as 'interior' surfaces (and have structural components pre-detailed inside to support them. Walls laid up against the exterior structural walls are one-sided (facing the interior). Flooring component types like bridges and catwalk mesh/grid are available to create hanging floor sections (multiple levels). Some pre-fabricated 'room' chunks like bathroom groupings can be fitted into their locations (they usually have their own sub-walls and may be designed as 'adjustable' in their dimensions). Various rooms sized for standard arrangements and purpose (bedroom/kitchen/bathroom/dining room/small shop/etc..) can be inserted as placeholders (and are 'hint' tags that can be used later for an auto-generation program to place appropriate prop/furniture contents). A validation checker can be run to show any problems with positioning : Preliminatry 'minimum' ceiling heights/spacings are calculated and indicated (to tell a player when the composition is too cramped). Similarly, if wall sections are placed too close, the program would indicate a 'tight spot' that might be problematic if movement is desired through/between them. Rooms that have no access-way/are sealed off will be indicated. The user can go back and make corrections/additions. Floorplan wall gaps will be indicated/flagged and can largely be auto-patched with generic wall sections (selected shapes/styles can be matched by eye). Later, if they are too plain or irregular looking (un-aesthetic) additional decorative details can be laid over them. Voids that are walled off from the interior space will be indicated/highlighted so that additional room space or secret comparments/closets/crawlspaces might be added. Ceiling heights are next for adjustment and checking (the primary limitations are stacked floors which may need greater seperation to fit typical ceiling heights -- which in turn may require stair/ramp adjustments). Some building sections may purposely be made cramped and the editor will allow that, but with warnings. Stacked floors need to be supported properly, and features to fulfill this would be indicated and added at this point (pillars and such for spans of floor sections not supported by lower level walls). Floor thickness can vary depending on the style/type of building -- wide open floors need thicker floors to support the span and high-rise buildings have thick compression plate floors to support the walls that are being pressed in by the ocean. Many buildings have utilities in the ceilings, requiring reserved space below the structural floor above. Once the floorplan shape of the 'area' is specified and valid, the Tools can assist in fitting floor surfaces detail (doing much of the fitting work automatically). Tilework, patterned wood, carpeting, concrete floor types for different wall/floor/ceiling section styles are now to be specified (including a paint bucket 'fill', like in Photoshop). Repeating decorative patterns can be 'slid around' to make them more aesthetic (sync them to other details). Special areas like damage, holes, floor warpage and rickety floor sections would now be added. Damage and gaps for wall and ceiling sections can also be specified (the generic wall sections get mutated and customized to fit these changes). Again these can act as flags for an auto-generator to vary the details of the 'damage' spot designated when the building design is used as a template (for auto-generation use). The editor would have a history 'undo'/'redo' ability (like Photoshop) to make corrections easier/user friendly. All kinds of Extra Details can now be added to the wall/ceiling/floor sections, many which have standard decorative 'slots' with default decorations that can be substituted or removed ( a neat feature allows you to quickly step thru available options and look at the result in-place). Built-in furniture like cabinets/bookcases/counters/dividing walls/viewblocks/ovens/closets/cupboards can be added and fixed into their places. All-of-the-above could be built completely from scratch within the full toolset (full 3D custom editing), but most Players dont need that when existing building block recombinations will suffice. Just glue predefined pieces together, with a little auto-patching between them to 'fit' them. Custom 'building block' sections CAN BE built up and incorporated to the 'Easy-Builder' (when made to fit some basic standards of compatibility). The proper modular data is created (more wizards/validators) to make them interchangeable components, and then are 'baked' into a NEW 'building block' (and hopefully later distrbuted to the Creation Community... ). Note that a COMPLETE 'Easy-Build' standard building block SET is required for this system to work (all necessary parts are present/available). Members of a SET match each other and are designed to fit together visually. The simplest SET are objects made to match a square grid unit for the floor and a single floor height wall rectangle (panel) matching the square width. Add a doorway portal (standard size) that matches one or two squares for access. Ceiling squares match the floor size. The objects have mostly a flat surface (texture) and can have 3D details (trim/insets/wainscotting/upholstering/molding). Basic room interiors can be composed with this minimal set. Additional work includes defining the objects as 'breakable parts' that can be used when damage is done, and support backing attributes to specify the type of support structure behind the surface. Additional components for added features can be added to the SET (stair level transitions/windows/partition walls/half-walls/support pillars/arches/screens/etc.. Initially 'Easy Build' components can come from existing game assets (like the Paupers Drop level) -- extracted and converted to use with the new Game Engine. Entire new Sets may later be created by Players with additional numbers of interchangeable sections and details --- the more substitutable options, the more versatile it will be, to allow the player can create what they want. Once the building space is defined, furniture/props/wreckage/decorations can be added (that is where much of the interesting detail and flavor really is). Many players will start here with someone else's building layout plan and then concentrate on filling in the rest of the details. --- --- Enabling Auto-Generation : The real 'trick' of this MMORPG will be the Servers generating buildings automatically as the Player accessible parts of the City expands. Local Styles/shapes/uses would be semi-randomly defined following a general City plan (Seed Data than is pre-defined so that the City's patterns will be cohesive). Effectively, a Server 'generator' program would do what the user of the 'Easy-Builder' does and piece together a reasonable building interior for a given need/space. Much of Rapture IS repetitive in its structure, so that a program and a range of predefined template patterns might do a sufficient job of creating many different buildings. Prop details auto-generated within those buildings would further vary the look/feel of each location, as would the inhabitants. Still there will be many UNIQUE pre-designed/assembled buildings (taken both from the games and new ones created by the Game Company and Players) that fit special key 'landmark' locations (including whole levels we've been in before...) . The 'easy-builder' Tool would often be used for parts of those (as those 'landmarks' have to be decomposed into unit/object sections anyway (for the Game Engine to work with). --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- -- A Mini-Game flavor - Assemble the 3D Fly-bot and improve your maintenance skill (an example) : 3D rotation view where the Player has to pull parts from a jumbled pile and add them to the appropriate spot on the Flybot Frame. Faster you can do it (for repeat playability) the more training skill you achieve. Watch out for the additional/optional detail parts (and even duplicates/wrong parts that get mixed in to your 'pile') as the difficulty level increases. * Assemble the Big Daddy suit and adjust the settings * Fix your Pistol (quick, that half-dead Splicer is still crawling towards you!!) * Machine Gun Maintenance (the secret is not to spare the oil...) * Put the Restraints on the captive Splicer * Wire up a simple Help Transmitter --- --- Time Travel Plasmid ? : Sorry, no. --- --- "RATure" - an all rodent Version of Bioshock : Idea based on a typo seen in a posting in the forums. Why couldnt some Player create a few scenes/sequences mimicking the original Bioshock with sufficiently mutated NPCs and CHEESE in place of ADAM ??? Choreographed scenes with some Player interactions. "A RAT CHOOSES BUT A MOUSE OBEYS!!!" Someone needs to stop peeling random mushrooms off the walls and eating them. --- --- Cannibal Big Daddy - one of those rumors : IT hunts (live) Splicers for its Little Sister to harvest and then it has a BBQ (so one version goes, using mesquite in another). One of those stories Splicers tell each other on cold dark nights. The MMORPG will explore what Splicers do in their spare time... Probably will have a Mission/Quest 'A day in the Life of a Splicer' - with a handful of survival sub-missions. ((Funny would be an extensive 'dialog tree' of many typical saying/gestures of the various Splicer types.)) "The ghost of Andrew Ryan walks the empty halls of Rapture, and any who see him are soon to die...." "The Secret Stairwell to Candyland" - a Lil Sister story (Wait. That IS what they are actually conditioned to see when its time for the 'ADAM Extrication Process' to be done). --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Do 'shock treatments' give you fantasy dreams ?? - Bathysphere Reality : Scene - whole bunch of Bathyspheres surface next to an American Navy Submarine and Splicers climb out and start to kill the crew and to seize the submarine for Evil Jack (not Sparrow, but maybe now 'Captain').... fade out. A dramatic scene , but not exactly possible (elsewhere is a seperate explanation of why that Submarine would NOT possibly be there). Unfortunately, the way the Metro Bathyspheres are designed, for a Bathysphere sitting on the surface, as the doors are opened the water will flood in and the Bathysphere will immediately sink rapidly beneath the surface taking the Splicer occupants on a one-way trip to Davy Jone's Locker. To work, the hatch would have to be ONTOP of the Bathysphere, to have any chance of letting anyone climb out of them sucessfully when floating on the surface. In the Metro stations, something must lift the Bathysphere out of the water to clear its hatch to be opened for passengers to get in and out - a lift underneath or a crane from above. Its all a simple matter of buoyancy, where the sub, to be able to submerge/go down, has to be HEAVIER than the water it displaces (its volume). To raise a large part of the vehicle above the water surface, the lower submerged part (still in the water) has to displace enough water volume by itself to hold the weight of both the lower and upper parts (now much LIGHTER then that water it displaced before). The 12 foor sphere displaces approximately 28 tons of water. If the Metro Bathysphere is to ride on the water high enough to clear the door, then 2/3rds of it must be lifted above the water level. The bottom 1/3 then has to displace enough water to lift most of Bathysphere's weight out of the water -- which obviously is NOT enough (when at the same time the entire sphere must ALSO displace less than its weight to be able to sink underwater). Other possibilities : What if the Bathysphere's trim was altered so it tipped back to raise the hatch out of the water (not exactly what it was designd for, but for the sake of explaining this) ??? How much structure (small bit that a ballast tank could account for) MUST be above the water for enough clearance to not flood from the smallest waves when the hatch is opened. Would not that balance/trim alter as a Splicer climbed up one side of the hull - causing a rolling action and a fatal flooding of the interior?? Tricky operation for half insane Splicers ?? (tricky even for an expert in a vehicle specially designed for it). Maybe if you had a bunch of flotation balloons around the top of the sphere (like a US space capsule after a water landing) ? Maybe a waterproof curtail wall to hold out the slopping water ?? (History - all the Amphibious DD Sherman tanks that sank in the waves off Omaha beach in WW2 - a Sherman tank weighs about 33 tons, close to the weight of Metro Bathyspheres). Back to the odd 'dream' - More likely that some other vehicle would have had to be used to get all those Splicers to the Surface (to attack the sub that shouldnt be there) and they would have to climb out of it/them from hatches ontop (like from a real sub). Imaginge cramming dozens of half-insane Splicers into a Fishing Sub designed for only a handful of crew.... Or maybe best explanation is this scene is just a hallucination the Jack (recently cranked up by huge quanities of ADAM plasmics/tonics) is having while he is being deprogrammed by his Biological father (special Flybots having been employed to shoot darts into Jack full of Horse tranquilizers, to capture him right after he killed Fontaine). Ryan NOT being dead after the little plot "Twist" he pulled on Fontaine/Atlas -- faking 'his' own death Ryan would then be able to give a proper lesson to his Son about REAL will and "WINNING". --- --- Sphere-o-rama : Most of a Bathysphere'se interior being airspace for the passenger compartment, there must be some parts of the structure many times as dense as water built into the vehicle to compensate. A thick steel hull (Steel weighs about 8X as much as water) and maybe some Lead weights (Lead has a density 11X as heavy as water) and machinery/batteries, need to offset the empty space. A ballast tank is used to adjust buoyancy (balance of weight vs displacement) is usually a small internal tank that can have the water forced from it (with compressed air) to shift the internal weight. It must be small or there will be no space inside the sphere for passengers. A hull strong enough to hold back the typical Rapture depth water pressure would be about an inch thick steel -- a 12 foot spherical steel shell that thick would weigh about 9.25 tons -- the rest would be machinery/batteries/tanks/ballast. --- --- Now SPEAR-O-RAMA : Something I thought of while giving the spear-gun a good workout in Dionysus Park (good for saving on ammo when you are building up for a BD fight on 'Hard') would be being able to use a Spear to jam a sliding door and then you could retrieve it from the door to 'un-jam' it. Handy possibly for the Little Sisters Gathering to block Splicer entry for nearby doors (far ones wont work as the Splicers materialize at a certain distance). You have to put the spear in the right place near the edge the door slides in on, and some of the spears could break on the attempt. --- --- -- -- -- -- . . . .